My thoughts about Education Humanities, Technology and Digital Culture. Interested on social media tools in educational contexts and
gamification in education.
Well, school year was not so bad. In-person lessons have been possible all year. Students and teachers finished the school year with joy and some relief.
Children an teen are happier at school, they learn better, develop social skills, they need to be among their school mates, learning in-person lessons, having teachers near by to ask, talk and learn.
Below you’ll find the top posts of 1st semester 2022 containing different themes: science, art, astronomy, French literature, music, children's literature, languages, women in science, European citizenship, environment, science-fiction series, animation, cartoon challenges, national heroines, sorrow at US school.
credits: Free Vector
Puisque j'écris des billets aussi en français, me revoilà ravie de partager avec vous le Top des billets 1er semestre 2022 les plus lus sur mon blog The Digital Teacher G-Souto. Vous continuez à me suivre presque quotidiennement. Je me rends aussi compte que souvent des étudiants me visitent.
Je vous en remercie, chers enseignants, chers lecteurs, de votre intérêt et m’efforce d’être toujours au plus proche d'événements concernant des idées pédagogiques ou adaptées par moi, afin de vous présenter des ressources et outils pédagogiques, en ligne ou pas.
Desgrandes thématiques:science, art, astronomie, littérature, musique, littérature d'enfants, langues, femmes en science, citoyenneté, environnement, science-fiction TV series, animation, challenges, heroïnes, deuil aux US écoles, langues, culture, animation, arts, environnement parmi tant d'autres.
Des ressources pédagogiques en ligne, et des adaptations personnelles de façon à permettre à tous les élèves la réussite de leur parcours scolaire.
The selection is based on page views but also based on pedagogical relevance of the most-read posts.
I kept the order of the most viewed, and eliminated the posts that seemed less relevant. The main reason? Sometimes some posts acquire too much visibility, not for their value but for the keywords that the search engines "like" indexing.
Here are the most popular posts 1st semester 2022:
Le Top des billets 1er semestre 2022:
My usual readers know I write in English, French and Portuguese. Ready? Let´s begin!
Lesia Ukrainka represents all these heroines. Lesia Ukrainkapseudonym of Larysa Petrivna Kosach-Kvitka was a writer, translator, folklorist, public and cultural activist, and most important a pioneer of the Ukrainian feminist movement.
She is one of the most internationally acknowledged figures of the national culture. The cofounder of the widely known literary society “Pleiada,” she wrote poetry, epics, novels, essays, developed the genre of poetic drama in the national literature, and belongs to the short list of the most famous women in the Ukrainian history.
The Ukrainian national poetess Lesya Ukrainka has contributed greatly to the development of Ukrainian Modernism and its transition from Ukrainian ethnographic themes to subjects that were universal, historical and psychological.
Hoping to have inspire you in your lessons all over the last year.
May 2023 be year of hope for all of us, the end of war in Europe, and all the difficulties all over the world due the pandemic Covid-19 last years and now this terrible war.
Teachers and students fight for peace, development, and climate change. Earth is our home.
Teachers continue to teach with passion, inspiring your students to be better citizens in the future and environmental defenders, preparing them to the new world and a new the future. Give them hope, joy, serenity.
Millions of people in Asian cultures will celebrate the Lunar New Year this weekend, the 22 January 2023. After the first New Moon of the lunar Lunar calendar, each year, communities around the world set up decorations, make festive food and gather with loved ones to usher in the new year.
The start of the holiday coincides with the date of the New Moon, which will fall on January 21, 2023, January 22 in Asia.
The Lunar New Year is a time to honor deities and ancestors and to be with family. An animal represents each of the 12 years in the Chinese zodiac. In 2023, it’s theYear of the Rabbit. The Year of the Rabbit is associated with peace and prosperity.
Why new moon? In Asian cultures, the rabbit represents the moon. Some says it's because the shadows, others say it's because the rabbit's pure characteristics.
Truly, the Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar, a combination of solar and lunar calendars. Plus, it has a long history spanning several Chinese dynastic periods from as far back as the Shang Dynasty around the 14th century BCE. Also, there are several different symbolic cycles within the calendar, used in Chinese astrology.
credits: Getty Images
Legends:
The Rabbit is the fourth of all zodiac animals. Legend has it the Rabbit was proud, sometimes arrogant even of its speed. He was neighbors with Ox and always made fun of how slow Ox was.
"One day, the Jade Emperor said the zodiac order would be decided by the order in which the animals arrived at his party. Rabbit set off at daybreak. But when he got there, no other animals were in sight. Thinking that he would obviously be first, he went off to the side and napped. However, when he woke up, three other animals had already arrived. One of them was the Ox he had always looked down upon."
The traditions of the Lunar New Year festival date back thousands of years to a popular legend:
"A mythical beast called Nian was known to show up each Lunar New Year’s eve and terrorize people and livestock. Loud noises, the color red and fire scared Nian away, so it became a tradition for families to decorate their doors in red paper, set off fireworks and leave lanterns burning all night."
Today’s Doodle celebrates an important holiday in several Asian cultures. The Lunar New Year! After the first new moon of the Lunar calendar each year, communities around the world set up decorations, make festive food and gather with loved ones to usher in the New Year.
The Doodle artwork is crafted from paper to honor Chinese paper-cutting 'Jianzhi', which is a long-time Lunar New Year tradition.
Today 22 January in Asian calendar, red remains a key part of Lunar New Year celebrations as people hang red lanterns in the streets and gift money in red envelopes to children and retired seniors.
Traditional meals are popular during celebrations and they vary across the world. For example, pineapple tarts and yusheng (a dish with raw fish and a salad) are a staple in Singapore and Malaysia, while communities in Vietnam enjoy bánh chưng (a rice cake made with mung beans, pork, and other ingredients wrapped in bamboo leaves).
This Doodle celebrates Lunar New Year, or Seollal (설날) in Korean. Each year, South Koreans enjoy this important holiday with family gatherings, traditional feasts and festive games.
세배 (sebae) is a principal Korean tradition where young people kneel on the ground and bow their heads to pay respect to older people and wish them a happy new year. Afterwards, older people often reward the youth with money inside envelopes wishing good luck. Families then feast on traditional food like tteokguk (떡국), a creamy rice cake soup, and sweet fritters called jeon (전).
The Doodle celebrates an important festival in Vietnam - Lunar New Year ! Known as Tet in Vietnamese, this holiday is celebrated by communities each year celebratinglove, thestart of spring, and thebest of hopes for the new year. DuringTetfestival, people often travel to the homes of their extended families and bring in the new year with feasts.
Tet Festival is traditionally celebrated across six days to spend time connecting with friends and colleagues and visiting temples and ancestral burial sights. During family feasts, people typically eat vegetables, banh chung (sticky rice cake), and cu kieu (pickled scallion).
The colors red and yellow are tied to good fortune, and Vietnamese people give money in red envelopes to children and retired seniors. It’s also a tradition to decorate the outside of homes with flowers - most commonly hoa dao (cherry blossoms) in the north and hoa mai (yellow Mai flower) in the south.
credits: Getty Images
Lantern Festival:
Chinese New Year 2023 falls on Sunday, January 22nd, 2023, and celebrations culminate with the Lantern Festival on February 5th, 2023.
Lantern Festival
credits: Getty Images
The Chinese New Year holiday comes to its great moment with the Yuan Xiao (元宵节 / yuán xiāo jié), or Lantern Festival, celebrated on February 5th, 2023.
The biggest attraction of the Lantern Festival is the sea of lanterns in every conceivable size and shape. Interesting! To us who live in Porto, Portugal, we have a traditional and popular festivity in June 24 called Noite de São João.
During this ancient festivity, all the people in town, young and oldest, go to the streets enjoying and releasing big colorful lanterns to the sky during all night.
São João Porto, Portugal
via Google Images
Lantern Festival in History:
Chinese started to celebrate the Lantern Festival during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-221 AD), and then it became popular during the Tang dynasty(618-907) and Song Dynasty (960-1279).
This is a festival for people to have fun. At night, people go into the streets with a variety of lanterns under the full moon and watch the lion or dragon dance, try to solve Chinese riddles and play games, enjoy typical food called Yuan Xiao and set off firecrackers. There is really a lot of fun for the young and the old.
credits: The Cli Team
Google Images
Began over 2000 years ago, the festival has developed many meanings. It celebrates family reunions and society. It features ancient spiritual traditions. Some also call this the “true” Chinese Valentine’s Day.
Education:
As you see interculturality is all over de world. Three-quarters of the world’s major conflicts have a cultural dimension.
Bridging the gap between cultures is urgent and necessary for peace, stability and development.
A good moment to talk about Lunar New Year - Year of the Rabbit with students. Invite them to a concrete action to support diversity aims:
To raiseawarenessworldwide about the importance of intercultural dialogue, diversity and inclusion.
To build aworld community of individualscommitted to support diversity with real and every day-life gestures.
Cultural and linguistic diversity, local traditions are interesting subjects to include and discuss into school curricula by using science to explain why Asian people call their new year, Lunar Year, inviting students to deepen their knowledge using social media in the classroom.
Learners are curious about other cultures and traditions. Let students participate in different activities by doing ONE thing for diversity.
Values: family, friends, honoring old people. And of course, sensitivity, prosperity and peace.
Diversity and interculturality:
Fables
As students could learn, the Asian legends about the Rabbit are interculturally connected. The ancient writers as Esopo, aGreekfabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as Aesop's Fables. Numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a storytelling tradition that continues to this day.
As I wrote above, there an ancient and popular festivity in Portugal where people hang color lanterns in the streets releasing them to the sky during all night.
It's easy to understand that interculturality exist around the world in different civilizations. So to combat polarization and stereotypes we must improve understanding and cooperation among people from different cultures. And that begins in school.
You must have Asian students in your class. It's time to invite them to share their traditions into the classroom.
São João Porto, Portugal
via Google Images
Students and educators are an important part of society to built bridges on a friendly dialogue. Students are spontaneous, curious, they like to learn about different cultures. Not so different as we could verify.
Bridging the gap between cultures is urgent and necessary for peace, stability and development.
Cross-curricular project: Languages; literature; history and geography; music; art.
If you are the Art teacher, invite your students to do rabbits artwork craftedpaper in different colors to honor the paper folding & cutting art traditionally practiced during Lunar New Year. They will love it!
Don't forget ! The #YearOfTheRabbit is about sensitivity, prosperity and peace, values that must be a part of all the Humanity.
May this #LunarNewYear2023 bring happiness and prosperity to you and your loved ones!
No matter where you’re celebrating, here’s to a wonderful Lunar New Year 2023!
Not every day do you come downstairs and discover that your son is a gifted pianist, right?!
Jude Kofie, 11, surprised his father one morning by playing the keyboards as if he had taken lessons for years.
"I was here watching the news when I heard him play something,"
Isaiah Kofie, Jude's father
Jude Kofie & Bill Magnusson
credits: CBS News
Jude Kofie, an 11-year-old autistic child from Aurora, Colorado (US) with a natural affinity for music, couldn’t believe it when a grand piano was delivered to his house. Wow! Neither could his parents.
Jude demonstrated a remarkable talent no one anticipated when he discovered an old keyboard and, without any lessons, began playing.
The piano was a gift from Bill Magnusson, a piano tuner who had seen a report about Jude on the news.
"He’s Mozart level," Magnusson said.
Jude Kofie playing the piano at home
credits: CBS News
After being moved by Jude’s story, Magnusson said he thought to himself, "What resources are left over to help this special little soul?"
He then used his father’s inheritance to purchase the piano and had it delivered to the family’s home. He also promised to tune the piano once a month for the rest of his life and pay for Jude to get professional lessons. I'm so touched! What a kind man!
"All for free - who does that?" - the boy’s father said. And he add that the family is "super thankful."
"We’re family now," - added Magnusson.
Watch the heartwarming story below.
Education:
Music has the potential to achieve social and psychological transformation of children and young people. Their sensibility will be accurate.
As I often wrote speaking about music, there some gifted kids we can discover in our classes. We must never waste such an opportunity as teachers! Captivating the major interests of our students to Music.
See? If you have a little student as talented as Jude Kofie, pay attention! Not every day we can have a Bill Magnusson near him. But perhaps talking with his/her parents about the gift of their son/daughter have to music. they could afford a musical education to their kids. There you have the chance to guide a little bit a new kid to join the next generation of good musicians.
Wherever you are I hope that you're having a safe time at school teaching in-person lessons. I hope you don't need anymore to teach distance learning. After tremendous floods on the block, the sun will be back soon!
Take care. Enjoy your life and profession. We are teachers for better and for worst. Students need teachers and now they do love school time after two years on remote learning and distance learning.
